Good afternoon. The latest setback for opposition politician Venâncio Mondlane’s plans to set up a new political party (see below and our blog post yesterday) invites reflection on what the government is planning to do. So far, the proposed Anamalala party has been neither accepted nor rejected. It rather looks like it is playing for time. Until what?
The ruling Frelimo party is nothing if not tenacious in holding on to power and to its privileged position in the country. Mondlane’s popularity and charisma mean that he is the first politician in a long time to pose a serious threat to that power. Setting up a political party would increase the threat, since Mondlane’s supporters would be able to campaign under the party banner and win seats in local government and in parliament. Given the moribund and ineffective state of Mozambique’s opposition parties at the moment, Anamalala currently looks like it would be able to unite anti-Frelimo voters at the next elections.
The full Daily Briefing continues below for Pro subscribers. Subscribers to the Zitamar News tier can read the top half, including the full leader article, here.
The latest from Zitamar News:
Zitamar News
But there is more than one way to frustrate this. Zitamar News understands that the government is looking to deprive Mondlane of his sources of funding, believed to come from abroad, which enable him to travel the world and give interviews to foreign media challenging President Daniel Chapo’s narrative that Frelimo won the elections last year and that the country is being reformed.
